31 Jan
Blog

Asus ROG Strix Flare II Animate review: My keyboard endgame

asus rog strix flare 2 animate review ii antimate 11

ROG Strix Flare II animation

RRP $220.00

"ROG Strix Flare II Animate is the gaming keyboard of choice for 2022."

benefits

  • Hot swappable keys

  • 8,000 Hz polling rate

  • USB passthrough

  • Comfortable leatherette palm rest

  • Beautiful anime matrix

disadvantage

  • Software could be more focused

  • Expensive for a wired keyboard

Year after year we see a ton of great gaming keyboards that are more or less identical to the competition. None of them are bad, but they are nothing to get excited about. The ROG Strix Flare II Animate is.

It's not just the anime matrix that makes the keyboard stand out. It's not even the 8,000Hz polling rate, the supremely comfortable palm rest, or the hot-swappable keybed. It's the combination of features that sets the ROG Strix Flare II Animate apart.

When Asus announced the keyboard earlier this month, I hoped it would be my gaming keyboard endgame. And after using it for a few weeks, I now know that it is.

draft

ROG logo on the anime matrix.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

ROG Strix Flare II Animate wastes no time impressing you. From the moment I opened the box it was clear where the $220 was going. This is a premium keyboard from top to bottom, and Asus is quick to make you feel like it's money well spent.

As with the budget-oriented Akko 3068B, it's the details that make the difference with the Strix Flare II Animate. The thick braided cable comes with a ROG-branded cable tie already attached, and the keycap pullers are custom-designed to match the look of the keyboard. They even snap together so you don't have to store them separately.

You'll soon forget all these details once the star of the show lights up: The 320 LED AniMe Matrix. By default, it shows a ROG logo that slowly pulsates, and no matter how you configure it, the matrix lights up when you use function and media keys on the keyboard.

I'll cover configuring the matrix below, but I had a custom animation up and running in a few minutes. The Matrix is ​​just a small bundle of gamer influence, but a company could still screw that up. Asus not. The AniMe Matrix is ​​useful when you need it, downright cool when you want it, and it finishes off the look of the keyboard.

Lauter logo on ROG Strix Flare II Animate.

ROG Strix Flare II Animate lock icon.

Opposite the matrix you will find some function and media keys. There's a metal volume wheel, a forward/back toggle, a play/pause button hidden on the side, and dedicated buttons for Windows lock and LED brightness.

On the front you'll find the RGB light diffuser, which is similar to the RGB strips on the sides of the Corsair K100 RGB. Without the palm rest, it offers an even glow that integrates the lighting of your keys. A rain effect, for example, is carried beyond the bottom row of keys into the diffuser.

Asus wanted to include all the features a gaming keyboard could have and they succeeded.

It looks fantastic. Even better, you can snap off the diffuser to attach the faux leather palm rest and let the lighting shine through. It seems that in 2022 Asus wanted to integrate all the functional and visual features of gaming keyboards and they succeeded across the board.

The palm rest plays a major role in this. It's plump and comfortable, and goes a long way in elevating the Strix Flare II Animate against rivals like the Razer Huntsman V2. It locks into place perfectly and refuses to budge, but it does require a bit of adjustment. When the back is raised, the palm rest is almost as high as the bottom row of keys.

Light diffuser of the ROG Strix Flare II Animate.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Luckily, it doesn't affect the typing experience. I ended up closing the rear kickstands with the palm rest attached and it typed Nirvana. In this configuration, the height peaks at the intersection of the keyboard and palm rest, with a subtle downward slope away from the keyboard. No customization here; I loved using the Strix Flare II Animate like this from the very first button press.

My only complaint about the Strix Flare II Animate's design is that there are no tenkeyless or 65% versions. That's just my preference, and if Asus ever decides to branch out, I'll be first in line.

counter

Keyswitch on ROG Strix Flare II Animate.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The Strix Flare II Animate model I tested came with Asus NX Red switches, which aren't my favorite. Asus offers one of three of its NX switches: either red, brown, or blue, which closely match the feel of their Cherry MX counterparts. I don't like linear switches, but that's the beauty of the Strix Flare II Animate's hot-swappable switches.

The only other mainstream keyboard with this feature is the Logitech G Pro X, which didn't start a trend toward hot-swappable switches. More than two years later, I hope the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is the catalyst.

You can plug any 3-pin switch into ROG Strix Flare II Animate, including switches from Cherry, Gateron, and Kailh. I'm more excited about the smaller switch options – switches from Akko, Glorious PC, and TTC. There has been a boom in third-party switches in recent years, and the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is primed to take advantage of these benefits.

Empty key slot on ROG Strix Flare II Animate.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

All my complaints with the switches don't matter because you can just swap them out. I don't like red switches for typing, so I immediately replaced most of them with my set of Akko Jelly Blues. But I like linear switches for my spacebar where I need to jump fast in games like Destiny 2. The ROG Strix Flare II Animate didn't make me decide.

Given how cheap many third-party switches are, the ROG Strix Flare II Animate encourages experimentation and bridges the gap between mainstream gaming keyboards and boutique options like the Cyberboard R3. Hot-swappable switches are a great way to bring customizations found in gaming PCs to peripherals, and I'm glad Asus is taking the lead with them.

gaming performance

Finger on WASD on a gaming keyboard.Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Given how much else the ROG Strix Flare II Animate has to offer, I assumed it would have the same cookie-cutter gaming capabilities as any branded board you could buy at Best Buy or Micro Center. You know what they say about assumptions.

The keyboard has a polling rate of 8,000 Hz, which is only available on a small number of keyboards (including the Corsair K70 RGB TKL). Most keyboards only have a 1,000 Hz polling rate. What's the difference? The higher the polling rate, the faster your keyboard can report keystrokes to your PC.

With mice like the Corsair Saber Pro RGB, however, it's more important than with keyboards. 1,000 Hz already reports keystrokes every millisecond, so increasing it only further divides that millisecond. At 8,000 Hz, for example, it is 0.125 ms. That's not particularly important for a keyboard where you probably won't feel the split-millisecond difference between keystrokes.

I used the 8,000 Hz polling rate for about a week, occasionally switching back to 1,000 Hz for reference. I couldn't tell the difference. It didn't matter if it was Destiny 2, Halo Infinite, or even Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy – the ROG Strix Flare II Animate felt the same regardless of the polling rate.

The gaming experience on the ROG Strix Flare II Animate is great.

It's technically better, but the 8,000Hz polling rate isn't this keyboard's selling point. It's just an advantage. Unfortunately, it is only an advantage for some players. You'll have to be a highly competitive gamer to notice a difference, and you'll need at least a 9th Gen Intel i7 or a 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 7 to even take advantage of the higher polling rate.

Polling rate aside, the gaming experience on ROG Strix Flare II Animate is great. It's not the switches or keycaps that you can get on any gaming keyboard, it's the palm rest and construction. Angled with attached wrist rest is my new favorite way to play games. It's comfortable and moving between rows immediately felt natural.

software

Asus Armory Crate dashboard.

You can configure the ROG Strix Flare II Animate via Asus Armory Crate. The app comes with all the settings you want, including macro recording, custom RGB effects, and per-key remapping. But it doesn't reach the same heights as Corsair iCue or Logitech G Hub.

Part of the problem is focus. Armory Crate is a hub that includes additional features such as machine-wide profiles, game offerings, and system updates. The extras are great, but they drown out the settings for the ROG Strix Flare II. Razer has this problem with Synapse. There's too much going on, and making fundamental changes harder than it needs to be.

That doesn't mean it's difficult overall. Armory Crate doesn't look as good as iCue or G Hub, but it's just as fast. I managed to update my firmware, adjust my polling rate, choose one of the 10 pre-made lighting effects, and create a custom anime animation in about five minutes after finding the right location.

Keyboard settings in Asus Armory Crate.

Outside of lighting, Armory Crate lets you remap any key with an application shortcut, text input, macro, or anything in between. This also spreads to the media keys. And if you don't want to mess around with the software, you can record your macros on the fly. I was hoping for a more robust macro recorder – Armory Crate sits at 100 commands – but it's still more than enough for most people.

Once you've set everything up, you can save your macros, button assignments, and lighting to one of five built-in profiles.

After learning Armory Crate's quirks, you'll be able to get around without too many problems.

Again, Armory Crate doesn't reach the heights of iCue or G Hub, especially when it comes to custom lighting effects (which are delivered via a separate app, Aura Creator). But it doesn't do anything too outrageous, and after you learn its quirks you'll be able to get around without too many problems.

The anime settings are a bit more complicated. Use one of the presets or a simple image and you'll be fine. Everything else falls apart. The animation timeline is imprecise and lacks settings, and adding your own images or GIFs is an exercise in patience.

Anime settings in Asus Armory Crate.

The problem is that the anime matrix only has 320 LEDs. It becomes harder to tell what you're seeing as the image gets smaller, limiting you to basic shapes and patterns. The built-in clock doesn't show itself well either. You can view your system clock, including a notification for alarms, but numbers don't always play well with the matrix.

It's just an expectation versus reality situation. The anime matrix is ​​limited. Within those limits, however, it's great. It's a fantastic way to get quick status updates about your PC or to check the time, and if you can find an image that goes well with this format, the Matrix will add a lot of personality to a setup.

Our opinion

ROG Strix Flare II Animate is a keyboard that refuses to say no. Plump and comfortable wrist rest? Check. Excellent lighting and customization options? You are here. hot-swappable switch? Asus has them. It's the ultimate gaming keyboard for early 2022, combining distinct elements from both mainstream and boutique gaming keyboards to create something that feels truly special.

It's still a $220 wired gaming keyboard that's hard to swallow. However, if you're like me and are willing to pay a premium price for premium products, it's money well spent.

Are there better alternatives?

Nothing combines all the features of the ROG Strix Flare II Animate, but a few keyboards come close:

  • $200 Razer Huntsman V2 — The closest competitor to the ROG Strix Flare II Animate, with a leatherette palm rest and 8,000 Hz polling rate, but no hot-swappable key switches.
  • $150 Logitech G Pro X keyboard — Comes with hot-swappable keyswitches but is limited to a tenkeyless design and no media or function keys.
  • $230 Corsair K100RGB — Packed with extra macro keys and better software, and designed to match the ROG Strix Flare II Animate with leatherette wrist rest. However, it still lacks hot-swappable key switches.

How long it will take?

Until the LEDs fail. With hot-swappable switches, you can breathe new life into ROG Strix Flare II Animate as long as you can buy button switches.

should you buy it

Yes. ROG Strix Flare II is the gaming keyboard endgame. In early 2022 there is no other keyboard that can do everything this one does. It's expensive, but even similarly priced competitors can't top what Asus offers.

Editor's Recommendations



03 Aug
Blog

Asus ROG Strix G15 Review: A Gaming Laptop That Glows

Asus Rog Strix G15 review 01

Asus ROG Strix G15 review: the gaming laptop that lights up

"The Asus ROG Strix G15 offers just enough power to justify its 144 Hz refresh rate."

  • Solid gaming performance

  • RGB lighting is unmistakable

  • High refresh rate

  • Good thermals

  • Thick and chunky

  • No webcam or secure registration

Higher refresh rates have become the main theme for gaming laptops in recent years. Thanks to the performance increase, even gaming laptops at the budget level receive refresh rates of more than 60 Hz.

Asus' eye-catching new gaming laptop, the ROG Strix G15 for $ 1,000, is one of the cheapest laptops you can get with a 144 Hz screen. My test device was only equipped with an Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti, the entry-level option for serious mobile games.

Is that enough to properly power a 144 Hz display? Let's find out.

design

Asus designed the ROG Strix G15 in collaboration with BMW, which at first sounds interesting. Unfortunately, the car-inspired aesthetic is nothing new – it has been in the DNA of gaming equipment for many years.

The design collaboration leads to a plastic gaming laptop with many ribs, lines and structured materials. This is fake brushed metal that you can feel at your fingertips. Nevertheless, I prefer the look over something gaudier like the Acer Predator Helios 300.

The ROG Strix G15 is made entirely of plastic, although the structural integrity of the ROG Strix G15 is rather tank-like. The lid is the only weak point. It is easy to bend or bend and the hinge slams the lid unless it is at least 50% open.

The all-round light bar brightens your desk with a dash of RGB color.

My device came completely in black and Asus says it is a "professional person". Frankly, nobody will confuse it with anything other than a gaming laptop. Laptops like the Razer Blade or MSI GS66 Stealth are better suited for a meeting (if you still have them).

What the ROG Strix G15 has are lights. A lot of lights. The keyboard has a backlight for each key. This is just the beginning. The ROG Strix G15 has an “all-round light bar” that brightens your desk with a dash of RGB color. The LEDs themselves are not directly visible and leave a diffuse glow underneath. It's a nice effect that sets the Strix G15 apart from the sea of ​​other black gaming laptops.

The ROG Strix G15 is not thin or light. It weighs 5.7 pounds and is just under an inch thick. Even the Dell G3 gaming laptop, which is chunky in itself, outperforms the Strix G15 in portability. The Strix G15 also has a large footprint thanks to the placement of the connections on the back. To compensate, the laptop has a solid chin bezel. There is a significant gap between the display and the rest of the case. This means that the screen sits higher than some 17-inch laptops when open.

The ROG Strix G15 has a typical keyboard layout, although there are some eccentricities. I like the colorful WASD buttons and the additional function buttons on the side. Asus has also pulled some important keys from the function bar, e.g. B. the volume control. Unfortunately, the buttons used are mushy and feel imprecise.

The touchpad works well for a gaming laptop in this price range. It has a smooth surface and traces well enough, although Asus has opted for old-school, left and right physical buttons that feel dated and cut into the usable touchpad area. As with many Asus laptops, you can turn on a digital number pad on the touchpad because the keyboard lacks one. It works pretty well, but the accountants won't be happy.

Ports

The ROG Strix G15 follows the trend to move many less used ports into the background. Here are your video output options, whether via HDMI 2.0 or USB-C. The USB-C connector is not a Thunderbolt 3 and does not support a power supply. To charge, you have to stick to the proprietary barrel connector, which is also on the back next to an RJ45 Ethernet socket.

The only ports on the sides of the device are three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports and a headphone jack. The right side is completely port free.

The Strix G15 does not include a webcam like most Asus gaming laptops sold today. This decision makes sense in a vacuum, as Asus knows that gamers who stream need a better external webcam. However, this decision is timed poorly due to the sudden popularity of work from home.

Finally, the Strix G15 does not include an IR camera or fingerprint reader for secure Windows Hello logins. It includes the latest Wi-Fi 6 for connectivity and Bluetooth 5.0.

display

The display makes the ROG Strix G15 an interesting gaming laptop. But not because the picture quality of the panel is so impressive. It's sub-par in almost every way, and the colors are the biggest downside.

It only affects 65% of the sRGB color space, which is poor compared to 98% of a laptop like the Razer Blade or MSI GS66 Stealth. Even the affordable Dell G5 SE reaches 98%, as do midrange laptops like the Lenovo Yoga C640. It has a light green hue, which makes my skin look almost sick in a YouTube video we recorded. However, this is less noticeable in games.

It's not a bright panel with a maximum of 278 nits, but the matte finish helps avoid sharp reflections. Let's face it, you'll likely be playing games in dimly lit rooms anyway.

The refresh rate is the outstanding feature of the display. A year or two ago, 144 Hz was the standard for high-end gaming laptops like the Razer Blade. Nowadays 300 Hz screens have raised the standard, while the ROG Strix G15 can be configured up to 240 Hz. At this price, it is still rare on gaming laptops, which makes the screen of the ROG Strix G15 a highlight of its gaming experience.

Game performance

The ROG Strix G15 may only have a poor Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti for graphics on board, but don't underestimate it. Modern 3D titles can be played back without any problems even at maximum settings. It can reach 64 fps (frames per second) in Fortnite, 56 in Battlefield V and 63 in Civilization VI. These are high enough, although they don't use the 144 Hz refresh rate much. If you only play with maximum settings, you won't notice the difference between this and a standard 60 Hz screen.

But it really seems if you reduce the graphics settings a bit. Frame rates increase significantly, and you feel the true power of a higher refresh rate. At medium settings, Civilization VI plays at 108 fps, while Fortnite reaches 86 fps at high settings (less than Epic). Interestingly, it matches the performance of the equally equipped Dell XPS 15 in almost every game for $ 600 less.

The problem? Not all games are as good as these easier titles. Battlefield V is a good example that still only achieves an average of 60 fps at medium settings. Of course you can set it to low if you really want to break 60 fps, but it's not fun. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an even better example. In the middle setting "high", the game on the ROG Strix G15 only achieves an average of 42 fps. With Ultra High it is only 23 fps.

The system keeps the surface temperatures surprisingly cool even while gaming.

That is why Asus classifies this laptop as "E-Sport". If you're trying to play something more sophisticated – or just want to see more graphic details in your games – the ROG Strix G15 isn't for you.

Here the AMD-based Dell G5 SE is a convincing argument in itself. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M of the Dell G5 SE far outperforms the Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti – in some cases even 48%. On the other hand, Dell sells the G5 SE without 144 Hz in lower configurations. The high refresh rate of the ROG Strix G15 is more suitable for a certain type of player.

Of course, Asus also offers more powerful configurations of this laptop. For example, an attractive option might be the $ 1,500 model, which is equipped with an RTX 2070, a refresh rate of 240 Hz, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB solid-state memory. Razer offers a very similar blade configuration for a whopping $ 500 more.

In addition, the ROG Strix G15 has a cooling advantage over smaller gaming laptops. The system keeps the surface temperatures surprisingly cool even while gaming. This comes at the expense of fan noise (and case thickness), but you'll appreciate the cooling temperatures on the palm rests after long gaming sessions.

Performance in content creation

When it comes to non-gaming performance, the Dell G5 SE is again a problem in comparison. It has an eight-core processor compared to the six-core option in the ROG Strix G15. This means significantly better performance in high threading applications. With a focus on gaming, this may not be a deal breaker for the ROG Strix G15.

My test device came with the Intel Core i7-10750H, 8 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD. The performance in Cinebench R20 worried me a little. The single-core value even lagged behind measly 15-watt laptops like the Microsoft Surface Book 3. Thanks to the two additional cores, the Dell G5 SE was 26% faster in the multi-core test from Cinebench.

This directly led to how quickly the ROG Strix G15 also ran when encoding video. The Dell G5 SE was 27% faster encoding a 4K film trailer to H.265 in Handbrake. Of course, the ROG Strix G15 was not designed for this type of workload, but if you want to create content on the side (which doesn't depend on the quality of the screen), the ROG Strix G15 can do the job.

The ROG Strix G15 also has an empty M.2 slot for future expansion. You can also upgrade the RAM up to 32 GB.

Battery life

The ROG Strix G15 is not suitable for long sessions outside the wall.

Three hours and 50 minutes in our light web browser test are not good even for a gaming laptop. The Dell G5 SE lasted more than six hours in the same test.

The Strix G15 has proven itself in the video playback test, in which a local 1080p video clip is repeated until the battery is empty. The Strix G15 lasted eight hours and even beat the Dell G5 SE by an hour and a half. Unfortunately, this doesn't match the battery life of a typical workload.

In my daily workload, which consisted of a dozen browser tabs and some applications, it took about four hours on a single charge. There are far better gaming laptops for battery life.

Our opinion

The Asus ROG Strix G15 is a good choice for a certain type of player. It is the cheapest 144 Hz gaming notebook you can buy and offers just enough power to use it in some games. The image quality of the display is disappointing and there are a lot of frills missing from more expensive gaming laptops. Most gamers will be happier upgrading to a laptop with at least one Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti, but the ROG Strix G15 is a good place to start if you need cash.

Are there alternatives?

The Dell G5 SE is a problem for the ROG Strix G15. It is more powerful in almost every way. If you can raise the price to $ 1,050, it even comes with a 144 Hz screen. However, the ROG Strix G15 offers a higher refresh rate with cheaper configurations and has a more polished housing.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3i for $ 920 is one of the few cheap gaming laptops with a high refresh rate. It's 120 Hz instead of 144 Hz, but you probably won't notice the difference. It comes with a slower Core i5 processor, but it's also a little cheaper than the ROG Strix G15.

How long it will take?

The ROG Strix G15 is a well-built laptop, but its graphics card isn't the fastest. In a few years, you may find that newer games find it difficult to play smoothly. However, the ability to update RAM and memory is a plus for the durability of the ROG Strix G15.

Asus offers a standard one-year warranty on its laptops. After that you are alone.

Should you buy it

Yes. If you're an e-sports player who cares more about frame rates than graphic details, the ROG Strix G15 gives you just enough power.

Editor's recommendations